The Qure

The Invite: When it comes to relationships, you can laugh or cry

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 12:30:00 -0400

An Oscar Wilde quote setting apart love and marriage opens The Invite, A24’s hilarious dark comedy about relationships. Directed by Olivia Wilde (no relationship other than admiration), the movie is a remake of Cesc Gay’s Spanish film Sentimental. The story wastes no time demonstrating the love/marriage distinction. Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde play Joe and Angela, a San Francisco couple whose interactions are sniping and dismissive. Why did Angela buy him a bike, Joe moans as he rests on the floor. Angela, it’s clear, is managing the house and managing Joe. Angela reminds him she’s invited over the couple from upstairs, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Piña (Penélope Cruz). Joe says he wasn’t aware. They start to argue and then there’s a knock at the door. In walk the stylish and supremely confident Hawk and Piña. What plays out is like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, if the visiting couple were not only happier, but more secure, than their hosts.

Supergirl: Searching for purpose

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:30:00 -0400

The comic book character Kara-El, aka Supergirl, comes to Earth from the planet Krypton. Like her cousin, Superman, she gets extraordinary strength, the ability to fly, and near-invincibility from our planet’s yellow sun.

Unlike her cousin, there have been few screen adaptations of the character. The most widely praised is a CW television show. The last feature film was 42 years ago, starring Helen Slater, Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow, and Peter O’ Toole. It was widely panned for its camp and storytelling, earning two Razzie nominations. It also hasn’t aged well: the leads fight over a MacGuffin and a man. The low returns prompted the Salkinds to sell their rights to the Super-franchise, man and girl.

Disclosure Day: You've heard this one before

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:30:00 -0400

Spielberg’s 36th feature film as director is a blockbuster science fiction yarn with a large marketing budget. It’s hard to believe this is the director of science fiction classics like ET, Jurassic Park, and Minority Report, because Disclosure Day disappoints in every area of film.

The premise teases a question about whether to reveal first contact with otherworldly beings. It centers on two human characters—Emily Blunt’s weather reporter Margaret Fairchild and Josh O’Connor’s computer scientist Daniel Kellner—who are in some way central to this first contact.

The humorous wonder of Project Hail Mary was all it needed

Thu, 07 May 2026 12:30:00 -0400

The premise of Project Hail Mary is that our sun, and other stars, are being drained of their energy by some force. Earthlings will slowly freeze to death if they can’t find a way to stop it. The movie, based on Andy Weir’s novel, balances a hard sci-fi story about stellar travel and stellar sickness with a soft one about a deep-space alien encounter.

It has a classic movie vibe. Actually, it has multiple classic movie vibes. Its lead is a solo square-jawed, wisecracking, genius hero. It has beautiful space cinematography. A space encounter. Deep space emergencies. Earth in peril. Lonely people connecting awkwardly.

TRON: Ares - Heart in a machine?

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 12:30:00 -0400

“What are you looking for?"
“Permanence.”

Set in the modern era, the premise of the third TRON film is that an AI-style tech race is on. The tech here is not AI though, it’s the world of TRON. In the story world, everyone knows the TRON world inside computers exists, and the goal is to bring digitally-generated humanoids and machines from TRON into the real world. The problem is that the real-world versions of these generated artifacts last only 29 minutes. The Macguffin is the discovery of how to make them last longer.

Predator: Badlands - Family Matters

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:30:00 -0400

Most moviegoers know what to expect from a Predator movie: hunting, blood, and techno-weaponry, with light characterization. Starting with 2022’s Prey, Dan Trachtenberg turned the franchise towards more thoughtful characters. In Prey, we got to know the protagonist as a person (not just briefly pre-deceased game), including a motivation beyond mere survival. Where Prey was a human coming-of-age tale, Badlands is a Predator version of the same.

The story is about a runt-of-the-litter Predator (called “Yautja” in the universe) setting out to prove his worthiness to his father. The movie sets the tone at the outset by combining familial emotion with a battle. It then pursues a surprising theme for a franchise that involves laser sighting and beheadings: the meaning of family. And it does so credibly. As the Predator finds assistance from other characters, their interplay begins to form a genuine feeling of connection. I found myself thinking about the theme days later, not what I’d expect from a Predator movie. The character dynamics also tickle with some inter-species humor.

The church shot in One Battle After Another (spoiler)

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 12:30:00 -0400

Willa and Lockjaw first meet in a wide shot in a church. This dramatic shot is thoughtfully composed:

It uses the rule-of-thirds and puts Willa at a golden ratio. On my capture below, she’s at 2,000 pixels over and 1,250 pixels down. (Credit to my son for seeing the ratios at play.)
Lockjaw is at another point on the thirds, and is placed higher in the frame than Willa, looking down at her. This creates a visual of the power dynamic.
Their relative positions, and Lockjaw’s seated posture, also convey that Lockjaw is about to judge Willa. The feeling is amplified by her cuffed hands and the altar rails, which give the feeling of a courtroom bar (barrier railing) behind her.
The vanishing point behind Lockjaw brings our attention to the altar behind him and, in this shot, he appears small before it. In the film, Lockjaw’s antipathy toward Willa is related to his goal of joining a religious extremist group. The inclusion of the altar and the religious iconography, as well as the lighting and colors, create the atmosphere of a Renaissance painting. In the context of the film, it conveys not an endorsement of Lockjaw’s actions, but rather that he is small before a larger force and that his actions are being judged.

Grid measured in pixels of this screenshot

The Order: The guns, explosions, and quiet of domestic terrorism

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 12:30:00 -0400

The Order is based on the true story of a violent white supremacist group that operated in the Pacific Northwest in the 1980’s. Based on the book The Silent Brotherhood, the movie is a partly fictionalized story of real-life Bob Mathews (portrayed by Nicholas Hoult), leader of The Order. To balance opposing characters, the movie created a fictional FBI agent named Terry Husk (Jude Law). Husk leads the pursuit of Mathews and The Order.

Polytechnique is an empathetic factual view of the Montreal massacre

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 12:30:00 -0400

In 1989, a shooter went on a rampage at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, killing 14 and injuring another 14. His targets were women, all of whom he referred to as “feminists”. Released 20 years after the event, Polytechnique is a factual reconstruction of the shooting with fictional characters. This semi-fictional approach preserved the victims’ privacy and allowed the film to build a broader context to the lives its female characters’ were experiencing.

The Dragon Inn still has fight

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 12:30:00 -0400

King Hu’s renowned wuxia classic delivers both narrative tension and great martial arts. The first half brings together the main players, who don’t know each other, at the Dragon Inn. The dramatic irony builds suspense as each new arrival tries to understand who the other guests are. Battles erupt when it turns out all of them are waiting for the same band of fugitives.

The fight scenes hold up well on modern standards. Hu used limited amounts of wire-fu footage, opting instead for quick cuts to imply flying. The fight choreography also does well on the standard of multiple movements before a cut. According to Wikipedia, chreographer Han Ying-chieh aimed to make the battles more like ballet than a plausible fight. The battle between Zhu Hui and Mao Zongxian is a good examle of this. The combatants move deftly around the same area and extensively use the surroundings. The fight has an extensive back-and-forth that convincingly ends in a draw.

The rewatch joy of Kung Fu Panda

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 12:30:00 -0400

With three kids, I’ve had the chance to watch Kung Fu Panda more than once. I was surprised to find myself both moved and laughing on my fourth (fifth?) watch.

DreamWorks continued the anti-prince storytelling that worked magic with Shrek. This hero’s journey is built around a portly panda named Po that works in his dad’s noodle shop. Chosen to join a celebrated band of warriors, we follow Po as he learns to become a warrior.

Petite Maman is a magical reflection on how grown-ups miss what kids need

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 12:30:00 -0400

Written and directed by Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), Petite Maman is about Nelly, a girl whose grandmother has just passed away. Nelly’s parents are alienated from each other, her mother struggling with an undefined unhappiness. Missing her grandmother dearly, Nelly magically gets a chance to get to know the past of her mother and grandmother.

It is the gentlest of fantasy stories. No flash of light, no crash of thunder gives Nelly her vision of the past. Quite the opposite: Petite Maman is full of quiet. There is no score and only a brief scene with music.

A Long Day's Journey Into Night is a striking neon-noir

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 12:23:38 -0400

The second film by auteur filmmaker Bi Gan, A Long Day’s Journey Into Night (# 地球最後的夜晚) captures the parts of a lost romance that are left behind in memories and dreams. Like a Tarkovsky film (Bi cites Stalker as an influence), this film focuses on sensory experiences rather than a linear narrative.

The story is a romance between underworld characters in the Chinese city of Kaili. Luo Hongwu, the protagonist, remembers his relationship with a gangster’s girlfriend as he searches for her. The first half seems to be an out-of-order series of Luo’s real-world experiences. The second half goes to the opposite extreme: it’s a dream shown in real-time, a hypnotic 59-minute tracking shot.

There Will Be Blood makes us ask: who is Daniel Plainview? (spoiler)

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 12:30:00 -0400

That's right, this movie is not for the faint of heart

Set in the early 1900’s, There Will Be Blood tells the story of Daniel Plainview, an oil prospector who strikes it big. The story is loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil, which is based on real oilman Edward L. Doheny, but this isn’t a biography. Daniel Plainview’s history is mysterious and, as the story progresses, he becomes first antisocial, then unstable and dangerous.

Concept art for Across the Spider-Verse

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 17:23:38 -0400

I love concept art. This is some from Felicia Chen, one of the visual artists on Across the Spider-Verse.

More at https://felicia-chen.com/spiderverse

Watercolors in Across the Spider-Verse

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 17:23:38 -0400

The Spider-Verse films not only used new animation techniques, they also used different styles in the same film (and sometimes in the same scene). One of my favorite moments is the watercolor scene of Gwen and her dad in Across the Spider-Verse. The cool tones represent Gwen’s feelings and they turn warm when they hug. Even better, they radiate slowly, like watercolors, and like thawing feelings.

Animating the Spider-Verse

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 17:23:38 -0400

There’s not much I can add to the heap of well-deserved praise, so this is a collection of excerpts describing the animation techniques.

Mixed styles

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse features six different animation styles, all of which are combined to create several characters and locations.

Stepped animation

The artists made a bigger decision to break with the way most computer-animated motion is achieved. Usually movements are created by advancing the image — say, a character raising his arm — in each frame, 24 times per second. It’s called “animating on one’s.” The resulting motion is fluid and smooth, but it can look too regular, even stolid….In traditional animation, much of the movement is done “on two’s”: A new drawing is made or the image shifted every second frame. Using animation on two’s gave the artists more control over the speed and power of the movements. Much of the animation in classic Disney features and Warner Bros. cartoons was done on two’s.

Ten things to love about Everything Everywhere All At Once (spoiler)

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0400

A sci-fi action flick that stays focused on its family theme

This is the brain-dump I shared with doubtful family members.

There are four story motifs going simultaneously:
i) a kung-fu western like Seven Samurai featuring a reluctant hero and a near-invincible villain, and with legit fight sequences

ii) a sci-fi multiverse story drawing inspiration from classics like Terminator (a traveller from the future comes to warn and teach the person who can defeat the future villain) and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (the improbability drive)

The parsimonious opening sequence of Everything Everywhere All At Once

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 17:23:38 -0400

Everything Everywhere… explores multiple themes—family dynamics, the immigrant experience, and a woman’s experience with ADHD—in a vivid science-fiction multiverse story. Directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan establish an impressive amount of this in the movie’s first minute.

The movie’s first shot is a push-in on a happy family activity shown in the mirror (looking back in time?). As they laugh, the frame closes in to trap this happy moment. We hear the sound of a mirror breaking and they disappear. Later we understand the meaning: we first see a universe in which this family are happy, then jump to a universe where they are not. The cut also establishes the style of universe jumps in the movie, and the cracking sound also recurs as Evelyn and her life begin cracking into pieces.

Rewatching Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 12:30:00 -0400

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third Transformers movie in the Michael Bay series, and ten years later, it’s still classic summer tentpole fun. Yes, it’s a studio construction whose primary goal is wide demographic appeal. And yes, it’s a story based on a cartoon about sentient robots fighting. But a cast that plays it straight, action that feels tangible, and CGI that still holds up make it a rewatch worthy of popcorn.

Tenet is stylish spy sci-fi

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:30:00 -0400

Tenet is the fifth film in which Christopher Nolan experiments with time. This time, the premise is that humanity faces a threat from the future. Our protagonist, named in the script The Protagonist, is brought into a secret organization working to thwart…the antagonists, who also remain unnamed.

If Christopher Nolan wants to make a Bond film, Tenet is the resume he’ll share with Barbara Broccoli. Tailored suits, scenic locations, yachts, fistfights, gunfights, gadgets, betrayals, shadowy agents, it’s all here. John David Washington may be an American agent, but we still get British vibes courtesy of Robert Pattinson and Michael Caine.

The 2006 Jane Eyre rushes but nails the romance

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 17:23:38 -0400

Film adaptations of novels must be difficult to size. If 1,100 pages of Lord of the Rings became 10 hours of film, then 500 pages of Jane Eyre should be about 5 hours. Two TV adaptations of Jane Eyre attempt the distance: the 1983 version at 330 minutes and this, the BBC’s 2006 edition, which comes in at 200 minutes.

The 2006 version dedicates most of its time to the romance at the center of the novel, and does it well. Ruth Wilson as Jane and Toby Stephens as Rochester are electric in their scenes together. That’s no small thing: the oddball romance involves awkward interactions and a lot of inner monologue, but Rochester’s stonewall abrasiveness and Jane’s quiet strength come through even in their first interaction. Then, both actors deftly moderate their standoffishness into friendliness. One of the best performances is when the feelings become manifest: Jane dies inside as Ms. Fairfax tells her about Blanche Ingram.

The lighting in Seven

Fri, 10 Jan 2020 12:30:00 -0400

In 2017, American Cinematographer interviewed cinematographer Darius Khondji about the atmosphere of Seven. It’s a treat to learn some of the techniques he used. Pictures and captions taken directly from the article.

In the Gluttony scene, a practical flashlight bounced into a piece of card stock on the detective’s notebook adds a perfect bit of soft fill on Pitt.

Investigating the Greed killing, Mills and Somerset (Morgan Freeman) find a message written in an “invisible ink” method. UV tubes reveal the clue and light the high-contrast, low-key scene.

Ra's al Ghul Speaking Urdu

Tue, 05 Mar 2019 12:30:00 -0400

No, he isn't.